Wikipedia talk:WikiProject User warnings/Testing/CorenSearchBot
I expect you guys know where you're going with this, but my first impression is that the tone is a bit... off? Maybe it's the fact that I'm an old hand, but I'd feel a little bit patronized by the current wording. I dunno, I guess it sounds a little K12. :-)
Then again, maybe you've got the past experience to know this is what works best. — Coren (talk) 22:01, 13 December 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks for looking over these – obviously still very much a work in progress, and we appreciate the feedback :)
- So, couple of reasons we're writing them this way:
- A lot of people who copy-paste stuff into Wikipedia are coming from cultures where it's totally okay to do that, and they honestly don't understand why it would be a problem.
- Newbies are newbies. Things that seem obvious to someone who's been editing for even a month are not obvious to somebody who's just making their first edits. We get tons of feedback every day from very new editors who can't find their contributions, don't know how to add section headers, and all the basic interface stuff that quickly becomes second nature to Wikipedians. I think we should be as deliberate as possible in any newbie-oriented warning, to helping them clear the initial scary hurdle of editing.
- Nobody likes legalese (except some Wikipedians, heh), and that's what the language of these warnings looks like. Generally speaking, people never read those long disclaimers and fine-print terms of use anyway, and most other websites never use that kind of language for things they actually want people to pay attention to. Instead, they use really clear, simple, precise language... 8th-grade reading level, which is also the standard for most newspapers :)
- Does that make sense? The patronizing tone thing is definitely a problem to watch out for, I agree, especially since there are cases of false positives. But I think most people getting this message are not experienced Wikipedians who've been around for ages, like yourself, and we shouldn't talk to them that way :) Anyway, please do let us know what you think as we're tinkering with these, and feel free to offer more suggestions/advice! Maryana (WMF) (talk) 22:46, 13 December 2011 (UTC)
- Like I said, I wouldn't worry about it. Seriously. I've been on the 'net since the hosts file was still copied by hand, and I've been a tech geek for longer than I care to admit. I'm the first to agree that I'm just about the worst person to consult regarding what is a good user interface, and that what is clear to me is obscure jargon for most of the human race. :-) — Coren (talk) 23:06, 13 December 2011 (UTC)
- No worries. Like I said, you bring up a very good point, and it's always useful to get feedback from the grizzled veterans around here ;)
- Also, it's funny: when you pinged me on IRC, your fluency with current netspeak made me think you're a lot younger than you probably are... way to stay hip and fresh! (Do kids still say "hip" and "fresh"? I don't know!) Maryana (WMF) (talk) 23:55, 13 December 2011 (UTC)
- Constant immersion in memeland, all true geeks remain teenagers well past their old age. And I happen to like lolcats. :-) But I was under the impression we (very briefly) met when Phillippe gave me and Brad a tour of the office last month so you would have seen that my body no longer agrees with my assessment of my own age; perhaps I'm just confused and you were out of the office? — Coren (talk) 00:22, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
- Like I said, I wouldn't worry about it. Seriously. I've been on the 'net since the hosts file was still copied by hand, and I've been a tech geek for longer than I care to admit. I'm the first to agree that I'm just about the worst person to consult regarding what is a good user interface, and that what is clear to me is obscure jargon for most of the human race. :-) — Coren (talk) 23:06, 13 December 2011 (UTC)